LAMAR — Juggling his many talents isn’t too difficult for Warriors senior Justus Williams, who maintains a perfect 4.0 grade point average and also starts at halfback.

“Granted, sometimes I lose some sleep because of AP classes, but it just takes a little bit of diligence in my opinion,” he said.

Interestingly, Williams is competing for valedictorian against fellow football player, Hayden Carlton, who plays on the offensive and defensive line. Who said football players are dumb?

Besides football, Williams plays a lot of video games.

“I really like role-playing games,” he said. “Games like Skyrim and also strategy games like Command and Conquer.”

Many people feel like games and football contradict one another — one is for the athlete, while the other is for the nerd. Williams said he didn’t care if that was the stereotype. In fact, most of the kids on the team play games in their free time.

Williams recalls coach [Lance] Spence once telling them, “If you were as good at football as you are at video games, we’d have one heckuva team.”

Many kids feel pressure from their parents and peers to succeed, especially if, like Williams, they have had long history of success.

“I’ve always been good at maintaining my grades on my own. My parents don’t really keep on me for that, although, sometimes if my grade drops to a 90, Mom will start asking questions,” Justus added. “But I know she just wants the best for me.”